Julius OkorieNottingham Forest won a fight to the finish battle against Championship side Ipswich to qualify for the quarterfinals of the FA Cup on Monday.
The duo of Super Eagles stars, Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi, were part of the victorious Forest players that fought tooth and nail to ensure that the Nuno Espirito Santo tutored side made it to the quarters where they will face fellow premier league side, Brighton.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe victory did not come easy. The tough encounter had ended 1-1 at regulation and extra time before both sides went into penalty that saw a record nine well taking penalties in front of 29,171 spectators. Goalkeeper Matz Sels’ sudden death save earned Forest a spot in the last eight at Ipswich’s expense
With neither side able to be separated after the scoreline at 1-1 after 90 minutes and extra-time, there were nine perfect penalties in the shootout before Jack Taylor stepped up. He was incidentally the only one who failed to score in the eventual 5-4 thriller.
Taylor sank to his knees in despair. It was his second costly miss of the season, after one in the Carabao Cup upset against AFC Wimbledon in August.
The Ipswich midfielder could only find Sels’ body to send the City Ground into raptures, with Nuno Espirito Santo rushing onto the pitch as part of wild celebrations. An over joyed Nuno was threw aside his usual reserve and sprinted across the pitch in delight. He was later seen carrying Nigeria international Ola Aina around the pitch on his back during the celebrations.
“It was the only penalty where I was in the right corner,” said Sels to ITV Sport after full-time. “It was penalties and one of the two goalkeepers was going to be the hero. It fell for me, so I am happy.”
The result means Forest will meet Brighton at the Amex Stadium for the last eight clash on the weekend of March 29/30. The most recent fixture between the two resulted in a 7-0 win for Forest.
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It was the second round in a row where Forest have required penalties, having overcome Exeter City from 12 yards in the last round, but Nuno’s special season carries on and they are one step away from Wembley. Aina and Awoniyi were rated 6 and 5 over 10 respectively in the encounter.
Forest have now won all four of their FA Cup ties that have ever gone to penalties, and they go to Brighton in the last eight, one win from Wembley Stadium.
Though disappointed that his side could not carry the day, Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna praised his boys for a good show.
‘It is a really disappointing way to go out, but I’m really proud. We came into the game and with a lot of challenges and we got more challenges as the game went on, with injuries on the pitch.’
Ipswich defenders, Axel Tuanzebe and Cameron Burgess, were forced off with muscle injuries at half time following an otherwise forgettable first 45 minutes.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
